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Fort he past few weeks I’ve been hunting a set of actives. Long story short: I fried a set of EMGs and even though I am not really fond of the active sound, I try to keep my gear as diverse as I can and that includes having an axe with active pups.
As I’ve always been disappointed by the 81/85, especially the 81, I wanted to go for soemthing different and I almost pulled the trigger on a set of Blackouts, but I was hesitant due to the hefty preicetag of a brand new setand I couldn’t find used one nearby. That’s when I saw an ad on a local gearflipping site about a set of EMG Bone Breaker, in box, with solderless kit and case candy (signature slime green pick... very important ... NOT!!!) for around the half of it’s new price, so I got interested. Looked into it and based on the descriptions and some sound samples I decided to give it a go – worst case scenario I have sell it to a Wahmmett fanboy
I must admit I began the „journey” with a fair amount of doubt though as the opinion of many haters seemed plausible: this is just a repackageded 81/60A set – much like the Zakk Wylde sig set, which is literally a set of 81/85 in a fancy box (sorry I can’t take the long shaft pots as something that makes the an ordinary set of pickups „signature”).
Anyways, I picked it up for a little less than hal of the MSRP and I installed the set yesterday. Did not touch the solderless stuff – seemed like too much hassle and the guitar was already hardwired (see WAHt I did there? :P) for EMGs, so just popped in the pups via the quick connect. Then came the pleasant surprise: I like them. The bridge has more girth than the 81, those earpiercing highs are gone, definitely not as compressed sounding and way more breathing room with crazy harmonics. It is kinda similar to an 81 running on 18 Volts, but even better. The way this bridge pup was modified gave it the sort of benefits the 18 V mod gives to the 81, but here you get more of each of those benefits. I wonder how the BB bridge would/will behave with 18 V?
Unfortunately I cannot speak much of the neck pup, as I never had a 60A to compare it to. I can only compare to the 85. When playing without any sort of backing track, the 85 is definitely fuller which I kinda liked, but with other instruments around it (read: playing along to some fave tracks) the more focused sound of the BB neck really shines. It still has that wooly warmth, but cuts through the background batter.
Based on the above, I must say that this time around the marketing gimmick is not just that, which is surprising. Also, those who stick to saying that these are jusr repackaged 81/60As are either deaf or they are just hating on the thing because...well...just because. I am not trying to hogwash the PR machinery here, none of these gadgets are worth their asking price and I know that at least half of the marketing is pure horse****, but one must give credit where credit is due. This time around EMG have really backed up their blabla and put out a product that is indeed different and in my opinion better that the 81/60A set it is based on
As I’ve always been disappointed by the 81/85, especially the 81, I wanted to go for soemthing different and I almost pulled the trigger on a set of Blackouts, but I was hesitant due to the hefty preicetag of a brand new setand I couldn’t find used one nearby. That’s when I saw an ad on a local gearflipping site about a set of EMG Bone Breaker, in box, with solderless kit and case candy (signature slime green pick... very important ... NOT!!!) for around the half of it’s new price, so I got interested. Looked into it and based on the descriptions and some sound samples I decided to give it a go – worst case scenario I have sell it to a Wahmmett fanboy
I must admit I began the „journey” with a fair amount of doubt though as the opinion of many haters seemed plausible: this is just a repackageded 81/60A set – much like the Zakk Wylde sig set, which is literally a set of 81/85 in a fancy box (sorry I can’t take the long shaft pots as something that makes the an ordinary set of pickups „signature”).
Anyways, I picked it up for a little less than hal of the MSRP and I installed the set yesterday. Did not touch the solderless stuff – seemed like too much hassle and the guitar was already hardwired (see WAHt I did there? :P) for EMGs, so just popped in the pups via the quick connect. Then came the pleasant surprise: I like them. The bridge has more girth than the 81, those earpiercing highs are gone, definitely not as compressed sounding and way more breathing room with crazy harmonics. It is kinda similar to an 81 running on 18 Volts, but even better. The way this bridge pup was modified gave it the sort of benefits the 18 V mod gives to the 81, but here you get more of each of those benefits. I wonder how the BB bridge would/will behave with 18 V?
Unfortunately I cannot speak much of the neck pup, as I never had a 60A to compare it to. I can only compare to the 85. When playing without any sort of backing track, the 85 is definitely fuller which I kinda liked, but with other instruments around it (read: playing along to some fave tracks) the more focused sound of the BB neck really shines. It still has that wooly warmth, but cuts through the background batter.
Based on the above, I must say that this time around the marketing gimmick is not just that, which is surprising. Also, those who stick to saying that these are jusr repackaged 81/60As are either deaf or they are just hating on the thing because...well...just because. I am not trying to hogwash the PR machinery here, none of these gadgets are worth their asking price and I know that at least half of the marketing is pure horse****, but one must give credit where credit is due. This time around EMG have really backed up their blabla and put out a product that is indeed different and in my opinion better that the 81/60A set it is based on
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